Three Young Investigators Named Winners of Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research

Memorial Sloan Kettering has named three winners of this year’s Paul Marks Prize for Cancer research, an award that recognizes promising young investigators.

Memorial Sloan Kettering has named three investigators as recipients of this year’s Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research. The award recognizes promising investigators aged 45 or younger for their efforts in advancing cancer research.

“Each of these winners is already a star in his field,” says Craig B. Thompson, President of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “We expect their research to have far-reaching impact on our understanding of cancer, and that they will continue to lead the way toward discoveries that will ultimately lighten the burden of those suffering from this disease.”

The winners were selected by a committee made up of prominent members of the cancer research community.

Since it was first presented in 2001, the biennial Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research has recognized 22 young scientists and has awarded nearly $1 million in prize money. The award was created to honor Dr. Marks, President Emeritus of Memorial Sloan Kettering, for his contributions as a scientist, teacher, and leader during the 19 years he headed the Center.

Simon J. Boulton

Simon Boulton, a 2013 Paul Marks Prize winner, delivers a lecture at the symposium held to honor the winners.

Dr. Boulton, 41, is head of the DNA Damage Response Lab and a senior research scientist at Cancer Research UK.

His research is focused on DNA repair and the discovery of genes and proteins that play an important role in maintaining the integrity of the genome. This field is important for cancer research, because when errors in the genetic code are not repaired, they can lead to cell damage — including the uncontrolled cell growth that characterizes cancer.

“Our strength and success over the past decade has been underpinned by our ability to move between various model systems, including yeast, worms, and mice, to exploit their respective experimental strengths,” Dr. Boulton explains. “My goal for the next five to ten years is to add a translational component to our research program, in order to develop compounds that could be used in the clinical setting.”

Levi A. Garraway

Levi Garraway, a 2013 Paul Marks Prize winner, delivers a lecture at the symposium held to honor the winners.

Dr. Garraway, 45, is co-leader of the Cancer Genetics Program at Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, and a senior associate member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

Dr. Garraway’s research has focused on the discovery of new cancer genes and cellular pathways that are relevant across several different malignancies, particularly melanoma and prostate cancer. Recently, he discovered cancer-promoting mutations in what is known as the “dark matter” of the genome — DNA that does not code for proteins but plays a role in gene regulation.

Another area of focus is studying how genetic or molecular changes enable tumors to develop resistance to targeted therapies, especially in melanoma.

Furthermore, Dr. Garraway’s team is adapting genomic technology to enable the use of this information to guide clinical decision making. “The challenge now is shifting from gene discovery to making the information practical so that it can enable personalized cancer medicine,” he says.

Duojia (DJ) Pan

Doujia Pan, a 2013 Paul Marks Prize winner, delivers a lecture at the symposium held to honor the winners.

Dr. Pan, 45, is a professor of molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator.

His most important accomplishment is the discovery of the Hippo signaling pathway, a central mechanism that regulates tissue growth in animals ranging from insects to humans.

Using the fruit fly Drosophila as a model system, his laboratory made a series of discoveries that allowed them to decode, in a stepwise manner, the key molecular events in the Hippo pathway. Their research further established a critical role for the Hippo pathway in controlling organ size and tumorigenesis in mammals.

“A hallmark of cancer is uncontrolled growth,” he explains. “By studying the mechanisms and genes that regulate tissue growth in normal development, we can better understand why and how mutations of certain genes lead to cancer.“

Dr. Pan’s current work is focused on understanding the physiological signals that control the Hippo pathway during normal development.